HARWICH – The 26-unit Royal Apartments project is back before the planning board under the new multifamily use zoning amendment approved by town meeting in September. The new amendment has done little, however, to abate the concerns of neighbors over density, traffic and public safety. Royal Apartments LLC has been seeking permits for a year to convert the former Royal of Harwich Center assisted living facilit...

 HARWICH — Officials are considering removing parking along the north side of Main Street in Harwich Center and shifting the travel lane to accommodate business on the south side of the road. That was one suggestion that came out of a Jan. 13 gathering with stakeholders and town officials as Town Engineer Griffin Ryder works on a Winter Shared Streets and Spaces grant application to be filed with the Massachus...

ORLEANS – The Cape Cod Furies were hungry for some goals. After only scoring once during Saturday’s season-opening tie against Martha’s Vineyard, the co-op hockey team comprised of girls from Monomoy, Nauset and Cape Cod Tech was determined to display a little more offensive firepower when it returned to the ice Monday afternoon for another Cape and Islands League clash against Nantucket at the Charles Moore A...

NORTH EASTHAM – The Nauset Regional High School boys’ basketball team is establishing a reputation for being the Cardiac Kids, displaying a knack for late-game heroics. Following a season-opening loss to Nantucket, the Warriors responded with back-to-back victories that required perfect execution in the final minutes. The team’s winning streak began Jan. 12, when it held on for a 66-64 double-overtime victory ...

 The sometimes weird and sometimes spectacular adornments of wild creatures inspired author Jenna Grodzicki of Chatham to write “Wild Style: Amazing Animal Adornments” (Millbrook Press, 2021). “Hats. Jewelry. Makeup. Perfume. People wear accessories every day. But humans aren’t the only ones with a flair for fashion,” Grodzicki writes. For wild creatures, “The right look, though, can make all the difference.” ...

Too often in the past, Chatham has passed up opportunities to preserve its past. The most notable instance is the passing up of the offer to acquire the CG36500, the motor lifeboat piloted by Bernie Webber and his crew to rescue 32 men from the sinking tanker Pendleton on Feb. 18, 1952. Fortunately, the Orleans Historical Society (now the Centers for Culture and History in Orleans) stepped in and saved the vessel...

A Win-Win Compromise Editor: In West Chatham, runway protection zones (RPZs)/safety-zones at both ends of the runway contain multiple homes, stores, offices and roads, which are declared by the FAA as “unacceptable, incompatible land uses” and unsafe. Where this occurs, the FAA AC150/5300-13A §322 recommends moving the RPZs away from the unacceptable land uses. This then requires planes to land further alon...

We’ll admit it. We were, at first, a little hesitant at the prospect of erasing the word “selectmen” from our lexicon when it comes to Chatham town government. That’s because we’re proud of the heritage behind our local government, largely unchanged since colonial times. Decade after decade, selectmen have made the decisions that have helped shape Chatham, setting local policies and responding to local emergencie...

For Lindsay Garre Bierwirth, co-owner with her husband Fred of the North Chatham fitness center Chatham Works, stepping up during the coronavirus pandemic is a way to show her young daughters that in hard times, you have to help others. “In the darkest times, you shine the brightest light,” Bierwirth said during a telephone interview last week. For several months now Bierwirth has opened her gym at 323 Orleans...

“God made mud. God got lonesome. So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!" "See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars." And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud.” Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut ORLEANS — When Cape Cod sat up, it looked like Dana Eldridge. Tall as a lighthouse, casting a cheerful beam on people and places, illuminating fo...

ORLEANS — The May 31 deadline to qualify the redevelopment of Nauset Regional High School for $36 million in state funds toward the $132 million project cost is not hard and fast, according to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. “We’ve granted two extensions (to the project) during the COVID period,” MSBA Executive Director and Deputy CEO Jack McCarthy told The Chronicle Jan. 15. “Nobody has asked...

ORLEANS — Seventy-five years ago, Jack and Laura Johnson of Truro cooked up an idea for a weekly newspaper. Under its second owner, Malcolm Hobbs, The Cape Codder built a headquarters at 5 Namskaket Rd. in with ample space for a printery, including a giant ink tank. The building would shake as a press operator announced each run: “Caaaaape Cod-uh!” The press is long gone, stilled and sold by an off-Cape corp...

ORLEANS — The May 31 deadline to qualify the redevelopment of Nauset Regional High School for $36 million in state funds toward the $132 million project cost is not hard and fast, according to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. “We’ve granted two extensions (to the project) during the COVID period,” MSBA Executive Director and Deputy CEO Jack McCarthy told The Chronicle Jan. 15. “Nobody has asked...

CHATHAM – Special legislation signed by Gov. Charlie Baker this week changes the name of the town's chief governing body from board of selectmen to select board. Town meeting passed a resolution to change the title in May 2019. The citizen's petition was filed by residents Florence Seldin and Debbie Aikman ahead of last year's 100 th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave wome...

Health Board To Meet In Emergency Session CHATHAM — The emergence of a cluster of four COVID-19 cases at the North Chatham Post Office has some people concerned not only about the spread of the disease but about how the cases apparently almost passed under the radar of public health officials. In a news release issued Saturday and an automated phone call to residents Tuesday, town officials urged anyone w...

            James Perron of Chatham, passed away peacefully on January 7, 2021 after a long illness. Born in Brockton, Jim grew up in Whitman where he graduated from Whitman High School in 1953. He played both baseball and football, and enjoyed scouting, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout. After honorable discharge from the US Army, he earned a BS at Bridgewater State College and a Masters degree in education fro...